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Precious Manomano-Herald Reporter

The major effort backed by adequate budgets to provide water through dams and boreholes will unlock more economic opportunities for citizens countrywide, President Mnangagwa said yesterday.

In a speech read on his behalf in Harare by Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka during the official opening of the regional water conference on water roadmaps where President Mnangagwa said water availability was a critical component towards economic prosperity. 

Water remains critical for socio-economic development, healthy ecosystems and for human survival itself. 

“Water is a precious resource for sectors such as agriculture, mining, manufacturing, health, tourism and energy,” he said. “As such, water scarcity has an undeniable negative multiplier effect on the performance of these sectors. Zimbabwe strongly believes in its people’’s right to water as encapsulated in the United Nations Bill of Rights and in our national constitution. 

“Pursuant to that, Government has put in place a highly ambitious but highly attainable target of transforming Zimbabwe into an upper middle income economy by 2030. The realisation of this milestone is undoubtedly and intricately linked to the development and implementation of a robust plan and roadmap to improve the availability of water.” 

The outcomes of this Regional Water Conference should address these areas and ensure that there is transparent and participatory approaches to water governance in Africa. 

The conference also needed to draw up clear guidelines for the mitigation of factors militating against the realisation of sustainable and equitable access to water in Africa.

These threats include inappropriate governance and institutional arrangements, depletion of water resources through pollution, deforestation and environmental degradation, as well as inadequate investments in water resources development. Government has embarked on a strong drive to boost water security for rural communities under Rural Development 8.0. 

The Rural Development 8.0 policy has eight components which are the Presidential Input Programme — Pfumvudza/Intwasa, Presidential Input Programme for Cotton, Presidential Rural Development which is expanded to include the Presidential Borehole Drilling Scheme and the Presidential Communities Fisheries Programme, Presidential Blitz Tick Grease programme, which seeks to ensure that cattle owning households are able to prevent the recurrence of January disease.

 There is also the Presidential Rural Poultry Programme and the Presidential Goat Pass on Scheme

Under this programme, Government’’s objective is to drill 35 000 boreholes, one in each of the 35 000 villages in the country. 

These allow the establishment of nutrition gardens, fisheries, orchards and related projects in each village, confirming the centrality of water in socio-economic development, food security and poverty alleviation.

Apart from the 35 000 village boreholes, Government is drilling another 9 600 boreholes, one at each of the country’’s 9 600 rural schools to improve sanitation, hygiene and access to water in schools. These interventions will move them closer to the realisation of Sustainable Development Goal 6.

UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Zimbabwe Mr Edward Kallon said the Government of Zimbabwe has demonstrated commitment to efficient water use by adopting water saving irrigation systems like drip irrigation and centre pivots. 

“It has also promoted integrated catchment management with multiple benefits for communities and the environment and integration of water in the national development strategy to achieve social, economic, and environmental objectives,” he said. The Africa regional workshop convened to develop national water roadmaps is critical and comes at an opportune time as the world is preparing for the UN Global Water Conference in March this year.